Into the Long Night
by Tracey Claybon
Summary: PG13 for language and adult situations. Spoilers for OotP. Lupin and Tonks, right after the dreaded Death.


Into the Long Night  
  
by  
  
Tracey Claybon  
  
Disclaimer: Not mine, all JKR's.  
  
This is my first Harry Potter fic. Please, be nice.   
  
Flames will be used to light scented candles in my house and the flamers will be given to the household cats for cat-toys.  
  
---  
  
Spoilers ahoy. This takes place right after the dreaded Death in Book 5. If you haven't read OotP, stop now and turn back. You've been warned.  
  
PG-13 for language and a mild adult situation. Lupin/Tonks  
  
--  
  
The dilapidated old shrew screaming obscenities and insults at the two people coming through the door of Number 12, Grimmauld Place squawked suddenly as the larger and male one of the pair suddenly lunged for the picture frame the shrew resided in, face frighteningly similar in ferocity to the werewolf form the man normally changed to at the full moon.   
  
Nymphadora Tonks barely managed to hold Remus Lupin back from the picture of Sirius' mother; the picture was shocked into silence - the violent reaction usually came from her son, who wasn't with the two. Into the silence, Lupin fired back at the shrew heatedly.  
  
"Shut it, you old bitch! I don't want to hear another word out of you tonight or any other night - especially about Sirius - or so help me Merlin, I'll blast you off the wall with an Incendio fireball so hot you'd swear a Hungarian Horntail sent it - Permanent Sticking Charm or not!!!  
  
The silence from the picture was deafening; the woman in the picture was speechless for the first time since the Order of the Phoenix came to Number 12.  
  
"Not that I expect you to care," Remus said with a growl, "but Sirius won't be coming back..."  
  
The woman in the picture looked stunned. "Whatever do you mean - not coming back?"  
  
Remus replied, "Sirius was..." his voice hitched "Ékilled tonight, while trying to save the life of his godson, Harry".   
  
His rage, once powerful, evaporated like water in a steam room suddenly, and turned to abject sadness.  
  
The woman in the picture suddenly looked stricken, then said, "That can't be true! I'm going looking for him right now!!! The last of the House of Black - even if he IS a disgrace to the name - CAN'T be dead! He can't!"  
  
The woman in the picture looked to Tonks in shock and disbelief. "Tell me that this is a joke - my ...son CAN'T be dead!"  
  
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but it's true. He fell into The Veil at the Department of Mysteries and didn't fall through the other side... Sirius is ...dead..."  
  
At that moment, Tonks, who had mostly remained calm until this point, began to cry, quietly, as the reality of Sirius' death began to sink in for her.   
  
Remus forgot his own overwhelming anger and sorrow for a moment in the need to support her, and he walked over to Tonks to embrace her.  
  
The tears on Tonks' face convinced the old woman in the picture frame like nothing else could have. Whatever the woman may have felt by having Tonks in front of her as a "halfblood" - she was a halfblood related to the Black family - and she had been closer to Sirius than his own family - she would not have lied to Sirius' mother about something like this no matter how much she hated the Black family.  
  
Suddenly, the old woman disappeared from the frame, a stricken look on her face as she walked from portrait to portrait in the house, looking for her son and calling his name, praying that he would appear and tell her in his biting way that this was some sort of joke he was playing to get back at her for the insults she'd flung on his head for weeks now...  
  
About 2 hours later, in an isolated room, faint weeping could be heard....  
  
---  
  
With the confrontation at the front door complete, the two saddened and weary members of the Order took step by trembling step up the staircase toward the quiet of the interior of the house.  
  
Fortunately, there was no sign anywhere of Kreacher, the Blacks' deranged and vindictive house elf. Lupin remembered vaguely that Dumbledore mentioned dealing with the elf somehow after the events of the evening.  
  
Lupin, supporting a quietly sobbing Tonks, made his way to a blessedly picture-free, quiet and cleaned bedroom upstairs that had been spell-locked so that Kreacher couldn't do any damage or intrude in here.   
  
Once in the safety of the room, he spell-locked the door, then he half collapsed with her into a comfortably-overstuffed sofa - one of Sirius' additions to the house... that thought was the one that broke the dam open - the quiet, strong man realized at that moment that he was truly the last of the Marauders - the agony of loss he felt at heart suddenly was more than the pain of transforming during the full moon without the Wolfsbane potion.  
  
Tonks realized even through the haze of her own grief that Remus felt the loss of Sirius as strongly as she did. She reached out and pulled him into her arms, and as she did, she cradled his head on her shoulders as he shook with cleansing tears.  
  
---  
  
After a while, the tears were spent and both were wearily slumped, silent, in each other's arms.   
  
Tonks and Lupin looked at each other at the same time; Lupin, still saying nothing, almost without thought, gently brushed a finger over Tonks' wet cheek to clear the last of the tears away from her face. She looked up, into his darkened amber eyes, and was suddenly lost in their depths. She whispered just his name, in a voice husky with tears shed...  
  
"Remus?"  
  
The sadness in his eyes was still there, but there was also the very human need to give - and take - in those gentle, unusually dark eyes. Comfort, love, caring - and the need to reaffirm that he was alive, after losing his best friend - all of those things showed in Remus Lupin's grief-darkened eyes.   
  
Tonks found herself suddenly wanting to give and take, herself, with the one person that at the moment was sharing her sadness at losing someone she loved and was going to miss horribly.  
  
Her face suddenly composed, Tonks looked back at Remus. She reached out and touched his face a moment, then leaned back from him a bit.  
  
It was Remus' turn to call her name like a question.  
  
"Tonks?"  
  
She concentrated and changed her hair and eyes to their usual colors of raven-wing black and dark chocolate brown.  
  
Then she half-surprised herself by leaning in and kissing Remus gently on the mouth. The kiss went on for about a minute - Tonks suddenly broke the kiss, feeling shy of the gentle man suddenly. She turned her head away, afraid of what she knew would come of that kiss.   
  
He reached out and caught her face in his hand, turning her face back where he could see her eyes.  
  
He saw grief to match his own, caring, desire, and - deep within, a banked passion mixed with a small amount of fear. He could tell that she wanted him at that moment - but that she was afraid. He realized that the next move had to be hers - or she would regret this night when the morning came, and perhaps for the rest of her life.   
  
He had no desire to willingly add to the pain of another, especially when raw pain in the form of grief was tearing him in half.  
  
"You don't have to do this. We can stop now, I'll be all right..."  
  
He would have left but Tonks made her decision.  
  
Before Remus could move very far away, she reached out and placed a slender hand on his shoulder to stop him from going.  
  
She smiled, just a little. It was sad, but resolute.  
  
"Sirius once told me of this Muggle saying - 'Tomorrow is not promised to us - live while you can.' He was right. I had a moment there - but I've wanted to do - THIS - for a long time. I think he'd approve. He wouldn't want us to be alone to mourn him - or to be sad for long. That wasn't his way."   
  
She looked into his eyes, fears evaporating like fog under sunshine  
  
"Tonks." He said just her name, like a benediction.  
  
"Let's honor his spirit - and him." With that, and resolution in her eyes, Tonks kissed him again, but this time she looked into Lupin's eyes as she kissed him, now truly dark with passion.   
  
The rest of that night, no more coherent words were spoken in the room, but as the two fell asleep, resting in each other's arms, neither felt truly alone or lonely as they faced the long and not as brightly lit night.  
  
FIN 


End file.
